Maxime de la Rocheterie on Marie-Antoinette

"She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr."

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

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Sunday, January 28, 2018

The Monnaie de Paris have launched (19th January) the second set of
coins which is part of their very popular Marianne Trilogy series that
focuses on one of the country’s most enduring symbols of nationhood and
the French Republic: Marianne. Following the series of collector coins
featuring the Sower, Hercules, and the Rooster, the Monnaie de Paris
honours a major symbol of the French Republic for the second year.

Since the earliest days of the French Republic in 1792, Marianne was
envisaged to become a personification of liberty and reason — the ideals
and aspirations of the new society which emerged out of the French
Revolution. The revolution saw an end to France’s millennium-old Ancien
Régime (the old order) with the execution of King Louis XVI and Queen
Marie Antoinette, and what emerged from the ruins of the now-defunct
French monarchy was an allegorical portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty.
This female representation soon became a symbol of Republican France,
with an effigy of Lady Liberty soon gracing the obverse side of new
coins of the republic, replacing that of the king’s likeness. Typically
Marianne is depicted wearing a Phrygian cap, a soft felt cone-shaped
hat, the depiction of which has evolved over the years, more influenced
by artistic and period-era style.

Although the origins of Marianne regarding how or when she received
her name remains unclear, she has continued as a reminder and an
evolving attachment of the common citizen to the revolution which
founded the French Republic. During the reign of Napoleon, the restored
kingdom in 1816, and the Second Empire from 1852 until 1870,
Marianne had been replaced with symbols representing Napoleon I, King
Louis XVIII, Charles I, Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III — including the
likenesses of each monarch. From the Third Republic to the present, the
likeness of Marianne was restored on state issuances such as coins,
stamps, and bank notes. (Read more.)

La Reine-Martyre

New Biography of the Queen

Marie-Antoinette's Daughter

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"...Bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters. Give ye a sweet odor as frankincense. Send forth flowers, as the lily...and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in his works." —Ecclesiasticus 39:17-19

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